Just another WordPress site

Menu

King’s New E-Book Delayed

NEW YORK – THE latest weapon in the publishing price wars: Stephen King.

Scribner announced on Wednesday that the digital edition of King’s Under the Dome, a 1,000-plus page novel, would not be released until Dec 24, virtually the end of the holiday season and a month after the hardcover.

‘Given the current state of the marketplace and trends in digital book pricing, we believe that this is the most appropriate publishing sequence for this particular 1088 page work of fiction,’ said spokesman Adam Rothberg of Scribner’s parent company, Simon & Schuster.

Thanks to an online price war among Target.com, Amazon and Walmart.com, the hardcover for Under the Dome, Going Rogue and other popular November releases can be pre-ordered for US$9 (S$12.50) or less, a strong source of concern among publishers and independent booksellers, who cannot afford to charge so little.

Under the Dome will have the same list price as the hardcover, US$35. Amazon.com and other online retailers have been offering best-selling e-editions for US$9.99, which publishers worry is unrealistically low. — AP